en-usBiotechSF RSS FeedBiotechSFSun, 02 Aug 2015 21:55:27 +0000Bizjournals RSShttp://www.bizjournals.com
American City Business Journals, Inc. and its licensors. All rights. reserved.http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/blog/biotech/2015/07/vivus-vvus-qsymia-obesity-weight-loss.htmlBay Area obesity drug maker slims down as market slowsFri, 31 Jul 2015 21:49:45 +0000Ron Leutyhttp://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/blog/biotech/2015/07/vivus-vvus-qsymia-obesity-weight-loss.html?ana=RSS&s=article_search
<img src="http://media.bizj.us/view/img/3184571/pills*100xx957-960-276-0.jpg">Facing a slower market for fat-fighting drugs and needing cash for an important safety study, Vivus Inc. said it will cut staff at its Mountain View headquarters and among its sales force.
The restructure move is immediate, Vivus (NASDAQ: VVUS) CEO Seth Fischer said in a press release Thursday, and is aimed at hitting neutral or positive operating cash flows by year-end 2016.
Vivus stock fell 22 cents Friday to $1.51 per share and lost another 3 cents in after-hours trading.
The company did not…http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/blog/biotech/2015/07/anacor-pharmaceuticals-anac-atopic-dermatitis-skin.htmlWith 365% stock climb, this Bay Area drug maker has skin in the gameFri, 31 Jul 2015 21:33:20 +0000Ron Leutyhttp://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/blog/biotech/2015/07/anacor-pharmaceuticals-anac-atopic-dermatitis-skin.html?ana=RSS&s=article_search
<img src="http://media.bizj.us/view/img/6603182/paul-berns-anacor*100xx350-350-0-0.jpg">Wall Street is scratching its health care itch, nearly quadrupling the value of Anacor Pharmaceuticals Inc.'s stock on the hopes of quick regulatory approval and a potential 2017 launch of the company's late-stage eczema treatment.
(Scroll down to see a chart of the rapid rise of Anacor's stock)
Much of the stock boom came this month, after Palo Alto-based Anacor (NASDAQ: ANAC) announced early data from two studies of crisaborole — formerly known as AN-2728 — in people with raised, red, itchy…http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/blog/biotech/2015/07/kezar-life-sciences-amgen-amgn-onyx-ra-lupus.htmlKezar scores with new way to tackle autoimmune diseasesThu, 30 Jul 2015 20:22:49 +0000Ron Leutyhttp://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/blog/biotech/2015/07/kezar-life-sciences-amgen-amgn-onyx-ra-lupus.html?ana=RSS&s=article_search
<img src="http://media.bizj.us/view/img/6591922/kirkchrisfowlerjohn071315tj-15*100xx3185-3185-0-330.jpg">Chris Kirk has a new set of downs for research that hasn’t yet been able to get into the clinical trial game against autoimmune disorders such as rheumatoid arthritis and lupus.
Under the banner of Kezar Life Sciences — a nod to the San Francisco 49ers’ long-ago home of Kezar Stadium — Kirk has drawn up a game plan that includes a $23 million Series A round from a deep bench of investors. With that cash, Kezar plans to start an early safety trial in humans within 18 months, Kirk said .
Kezar’s…http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/blog/biotech/2015/07/gilead-gild-japan-sovaldi-harvoni-hepatitis-c.htmlGilead hepatitis C drugs build road to JapanWed, 29 Jul 2015 23:37:05 +0000Ron Leutyhttp://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/blog/biotech/2015/07/gilead-gild-japan-sovaldi-harvoni-hepatitis-c.html?ana=RSS&s=article_search
<img src="http://media.bizj.us/view/img/1711451/gilead-bloomberg*100xx1378-1379-583-0.jpg">Gilead Sciences Inc. will use this year's launches of its blockbuster hepatitis C drugs in Japan as springboards for other products in the Asian nation.
Leaders of the Foster City-based company aren't saying much more about which drugs could be next, but it is clear that Japan offers a big opportunity for Gilead's once-a-day hepatitis C tablets Sovaldi and Harvoni.
Gilead's new Japanese subsidiary "will be a platform in the future for us to launch a whole series of future products, not just in…http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/blog/biotech/2015/07/gilead-gild-sovaldi-harvoni-hepatitis-c-price-gild.htmlPricey hepatitis C drugs help Gilead eclipse big sales thresholdTue, 28 Jul 2015 20:46:35 +0000Ron Leutyhttp://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/blog/biotech/2015/07/gilead-gild-sovaldi-harvoni-hepatitis-c-price-gild.html?ana=RSS&s=article_search
<img src="http://media.bizj.us/view/img/3237411/johnmartin*100xx3064-3065-455-0.jpg">Gilead Sciences Inc. earnings zoomed past second-quarter Wall Street expectations, pushed along by its two groundbreaking but controversially priced hepatitis C drugs.
The Foster City-based company (NASDAQ: GILD), led by CEO John Martin, said Tuesday that it earned just short of $4.5 billion, or $2.92 per share on a diluted basis, on $8.24 million of revenue. Analysts expected $2.71 per share on $7.6 billion of revenue, according to a consensus estimate by Thomson Reuters.
The drug-development…http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/blog/biotech/2015/07/avalanche-biotechnologies-aavl-tom-chalberg-aavl.htmlAs CEO exits, gene therapy company continues tumbleMon, 27 Jul 2015 21:50:46 +0000Ron Leutyhttp://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/blog/biotech/2015/07/avalanche-biotechnologies-aavl-tom-chalberg-aavl.html?ana=RSS&s=article_search
<img src="http://media.bizj.us/view/img/2521751/chalbergthomas2137sb11*100xx1032-1032-0-0.jpg">Avalanche Biotechnologies Inc. co-founder Tom Chalberg stepped down as CEO, but the gene therapy company's stock continued to fall following mixed results last month from a mid-stage trial of an experimental treatment for a blinding eye disease.
Menlo Park-based Avalanche (NASDAQ: AAVL) was part of the Bay Area biotech IPO Class of 2014, raising more than $100 million and entering the year at $54.60 per share. But results of a Phase IIa trial of the company's lead drug, called AVA-101, in patients…http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/blog/biotech/2015/07/xoma-behcets-uveitis-gevokizumab.htmlAlready with $1 billion in losses, Xoma plummets with late-stage drug failureFri, 24 Jul 2015 20:27:47 +0000Ron Leutyhttp://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/blog/biotech/2015/07/xoma-behcets-uveitis-gevokizumab.html?ana=RSS&s=article_search
<img src="http://media.bizj.us/view/img/2113551/john-varian-xoma*100xx398-398-64-0.jpg">Xoma Corp. continued tumbling Friday after its headline drug failed a late-stage clinical trial in patients with a blinding eye disease.
Berkeley-based Xoma's (NASDAQ: XOMA) stock closed at 94 cents per share Friday, down nearly 9 cents from the previous close. From a Tuesday close of $4.39, the stock had fallen as low as 85 cents on Wednesday's news of the drug's failure in a study of patients with Behcet's uveitis, a potentially blinding chronic inflammation of blood vessels in the eye.
The drug,…http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/blog/biotech/2015/07/amgen-onyx-amgn-kyprolis-multiple-myeloma.htmlNear the end, Onyx delivers once more with cancer-fighting drugFri, 24 Jul 2015 19:11:34 +0000Ron Leutyhttp://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/blog/biotech/2015/07/amgen-onyx-amgn-kyprolis-multiple-myeloma.html?ana=RSS&s=article_search
<img src="http://media.bizj.us/view/img/3313441/14015321h1015517*100xx1989-1989-506-0.jpg">Three years after Onyx Pharmaceuticals won its first drug approval — and months before parent Amgen Inc. closes the South San Francisco biotech's doors — regulators approved the expanded use of Kyprolis for a deadly blood cancer.
The Food and Drug Administration said Friday that Kyprolis could be used in combination with Celgene's Revlimid and the corticosteroid dexamethasone to treat relapsed multiple myeloma patients who have received one to three prior lines of therapy.
The approval positions…http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/blog/biotech/2015/07/sutrovax-vaccines-series-a-abingworth-roche.htmlPeninsula vaccines spinout snags $22 million in early fundingThu, 23 Jul 2015 13:19:38 +0000Ron Leutyhttp://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/blog/biotech/2015/07/sutrovax-vaccines-series-a-abingworth-roche.html?ana=RSS&s=article_search
<img src="http://media.bizj.us/view/img/4355141/grant-pickering*100xx2395-2400-602-0.jpg">A Peninsula spinout company focusing its vaccine-development work on flu and other potentially deadly infectious diseases lined up $22 million in an early funding round.
South San Francisco's SutroVax will use the cash from Abingworth, Longitude Capital, CTI Capital and the venture arm of Genentech Inc.'s parent company Roche to push several vaccine programs through preclinical proof of concept, the company said Thursday.
The company is a spinout of Sutro Biopharma Inc. of South San Francisco,…http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/blog/biotech/2015/07/theranos-board-george-shultz-kissinger-clia-waiver.htmlHow much does Theranos' power-packed board help it navigate D.C.?Mon, 20 Jul 2015 20:53:25 +0000Ron Leutyhttp://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/blog/biotech/2015/07/theranos-board-george-shultz-kissinger-clia-waiver.html?ana=RSS&s=article_search
<img src="http://media.bizj.us/view/img/5687591/elizabethholmes-for-influential-women-use-only*100xx2008-2008-278-0.jpg">Lab testing company Theranos Inc. has done amazing things over the past couple of years, not the least of which was last week's win of a key bureaucratic waiver from the FDA.
The waiver from CLIA — the Clinical Laboratory Improvements Act — is for a herpes simplex 1 test developed by the Palo Alto company, which was started 12 years ago by then-19-year-old Stanford University dropout Elizabeth Holmes and came out of stealth two years ago. More importantly, though, the Food and Drug Administration…